Prayer for Palm Sunday Week

O Lord Jesus Christ, who as on this day didst enter the rebellious city where thou wast to die, enter into our hearts, we beseech thee, and subdue them wholly to thyself.

And as thy faithful disciples blessed thy coming, and spread their garments in the way, covering it with palm-branches, may we be ready to cast ourselves and all that we are in joyful obeisance before thee, and to bless thee, O thou who comest in the name of the Lord.

And grant that after having worshiped and confessed thee on the earth, we may be among the number of those who shall hail thine eternal triumphs, and bear in their hands the palms of victory, when every knee shall bow before thee, and every tongue confess that thou art Lord, King of Kings, Glory of Heaven, for whom abideth dominion, power and honor, now and forever. Amen.

James Martineau (Ferguson and Wallis, 415, p. 141)

This prayer contains some words and phrased that we do not use any longer in our modern English. As I ponder the beauty of this prayer and the words used I have to wonder what kind of English will be used in the next twenty years with the acceptance of text message language. 

And the answers are:

Prayer #1 (By Benjamin Franklin):  O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me.

Prayer #2 (By Elvis Presley): Send me some light - I need it.

Prayer #3 (by Eleanor Roosevelt): Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far off goals. Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to Thee for strength. Deliver us from the fretfulness and self-pitying; make us sure of the good we cannot see and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us and our hearts to the loveliness men hide from us because we do not try to understand them. Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of the world made new.

Prayer #4 (By Billy Graham): Our Father and God, we praise You for Your goodness to our nation, giving us blessings far beyond what we deserve. Yet we know all is not right with America. We deeply need a moral and spiritual renewal to help us meet the many problems we face. Convict us of sin. Help us to turn to You in repentance and faith. Set our feet on the path of Your righteousness and peace.  We pray today for our nation's leaders. Give them the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do it. You have said, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." May this be a new era for America, as we humble ourselves and acknowledge You alone as our Savior and Lord. This we pray in Your holy name, Amen

And for today...a prayer quiz

Your task for today is to match the prayer below to its famous author.  The authors include:  Eleanor Roosevelt, Billy Graham, Benjamin Franklin, and Elvis Presley.  (Answers will be provided in the next post.)


Prayer #1:  O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me.


Prayer #2: Send me some light - I need it.


Prayer #3: Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far off goals. Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to Thee for strength. Deliver us from the fretfulness and self-pitying; make us sure of the good we cannot see and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us and our hearts to the loveliness men hide from us because we do not try to understand them. Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of the world made new.


Prayer #4: Our Father and God, we praise You for Your goodness to our nation, giving us blessings far beyond what we deserve. Yet we know all is not right with America. We deeply need a moral and spiritual renewal to help us meet the many problems we face. Convict us of sin. Help us to turn to You in repentance and faith. Set our feet on the path of Your righteousness and peace.  We pray today for our nation's leaders. Give them the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do it. You have said, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." May this be a new era for America, as we humble ourselves and acknowledge You alone as our Savior and Lord. This we pray in Your holy name, Amen

And then you

We arrange our lives as best we can,
     to keep your holiness at bay,
          with our pieties,
                  our doctrines,
                  our liturgies,
                  our moralities,
                  our secret ideologies,
Safe, virtuous, settled.


And then you --
     you and your dreams,
     you and your visions,
     you and your purposes,
     you and your commands,
     you and our neighbors.


We find your holiness not at bay,
     but probing, pervading,
          insisting, demanding.


And we yield, sometimes gladly,
          sometimes resentfully,
          sometimes late . . . or soon.


We yield because you, beyond us, are our God.
     we are your creatures met by your holiness,
                    by your holiness made our true selves.


     And we yield.  Amen.




Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth (c) 2003, pg 3.

Psalm 63: 1-8

A psalm of David when he was in the desert of Judah.

 ¹ You, God, are my God,
       earnestly I seek you;
       I thirst for you,
       my whole being longs for you,
       in a dry and parched land
       where there is no water.

    ² I have seen you in the sanctuary
       and beheld your power and your glory.

     ³ Because your love is better than life,
       my lips will glorify you.

     ⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
       and in your name I will lift up my hands.

     ⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of 
       foods;  with singing lips my mouth will 
       praise you.

     ⁶ On my bed I remember you;
       I think of you through the watches of the night.

     ⁷ Because you are my help,
       I sing in the shadow of your wings.

     ⁸ I cling to you;
       your right hand upholds me.

May it be so, Lord God.  Amen.

The Undercover Boss and The Oscars

Among the TV offerings tonight were two programs which highlighted individuals on extreme opposite ends of life's spectrum.  

The Undercover Boss followed the CEO of 7-11 as he worked incognito at various positions within the company.  Working alongside employees making deliveries, cleaning the stores and waiting on customers, he saw firsthand the challenges of the labor and the people working largely in low-pay, completely unglamorous positions.  And he was amazed by the quality of the people, completely apart from their work performance, who worked for the company.


The Oscars, by contrast, portrayed Hollywood glamour at its best.  While the awards are clearly a primary focus, the red carpet runs a close second in importance.  The public and the media crowd into their places hours in advance, hoping for a chance to glimpse beautiful and famous people in beautiful clothing made by famous designers.  


In comparing the first series of lifestyles to the second, the correct "Christian" answer is obvious.  Clearly, it is more righteous to do your honest labor well, no matter how mundane, rather than to live the shallow, albeit glamorous, life of a Hollywood actor.  Any kindergarten student in Sunday school could come up with that answer.


Why then, deep inside, do we so often secretly want the glamorous life?  Whether on a Hollywood scale or not, we very frequently crave the attention and admiration of those around us.  Despite all of our claims to the opposite, we want to be pulled out of the crowd and noticed.


During this season of Lent, let us be reminded that there is only one voice of approval with eternal value.  The voice of the one who loved us before we were born, continues to love us now despite our many flaws, and will love us for all time.

Psalm 139

¹ O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.


 ² You know when I sit and when I rise;
       you perceive my thoughts from afar.

 ³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
       you are familiar with all my ways.

 ⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
       you know it completely, O LORD.

 ⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
       you have laid your hand upon me.

 ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain.

 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?

 ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

 ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
       if I settle on the far side of the sea,

 ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
       your right hand will hold me fast.

 ¹¹ If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
       and the light become night around me,"

 ¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.

Streams and Pathways

If asked, we all would likely report a preference for experiencing spiritual growth through times of great health, peace and prosperity.   Unfortunately, this is not the typical model.  When all is going well and success is found in every endeavor, the perceived need for God lessens or disappears.  Or, perhaps even more dangerously, our theology is remolded into a faith that assumes a positive correlation between the maturity of our faith and the earthly blessings we experience.

In his book, Shattered Dreams, Larry Crabb writes that "shattered dreams open the door to better dreams, dreams that we do not properly value until the dreams that we improperly value are destroyed.  Shattered dreams destroy false expectation, such as the "victorious" Christian life with no real struggle or failure.  They help us discover true hope.  We need the help of shattered dreams to put us in touch with what we most long for, to create a felt appetite for better dreams.  And living for the better dreams generates a new, unfamiliar feeling that we eventually recognize as joy." (p. 35)

But how do we survive the experience of having our dreams shattered?

In Isaiah 43: 19 God says, “I am about to do a brand new thing!  Streams of living water in the wasteland and pathways through the wilderness.” 

On March 26 - 27, 2010, The Journey will host a two day retreat called Streams and Pathways.

The focus of “Streams and Pathways” is to allow God to shape these “streams of living water and pathways through the wilderness” in our lives. “Streams and Pathways” is designed to allow us time to listen, to notice the movements of God in our lives. We will be working through a variety of spiritual practices in order to allow us time to hear God’s still, small voice. As we experience these practices we will have an opportunity to draft a rule of life - a pattern of spiritual practices that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness. The rule of life offers unique and regular rhythms that free and open each person to the will and presence of Christ. The journey allows us a way to partner with the Holy Spirit for personal transformation. We invite you to journey with us.